The story says quite something about the ideological underpinnings of the contemporary European Union. Let me translate the full German text first:

Juncker expects to open the Karl Marx exhibitions

[a photo of Juncker]

Trier. It's expected that the president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker will lead the opening ceremony of the 200th anniversary of birth of Karl Marx in his hometown, Trier (sometimes Treves in English). [dpa]

Juncker will give a speech in the Basilica of Constantine in Trier, it was announced by Rainer Auts, the CEO of the exhibition company Karl Marx 2018. The celebration is the initial signal of the great state celebration "Karl Marx 1818-1883, Life, Works, Time" in the Lands Museum of Rhineland in Trier, Municipal Simeonstift Museum Trier, and in the new permanent Karl Marx exhibition in his house – as well as a special exhibition in the Dom Museum.

Marx was born on May 5th, 1818 in Trier and he has lived there for the first 17 years of his life. The 200th anniversary is a "great opportunity" for Trier to highlight itself, the Rhineland-Palatinate minister of culture Mr Konrad Wolf (SPD) said on Tuesday night (one week ago) to the Association of German Journalists (DJV). "That's why we have set the bar high."

The planned huge sculpture of Karl Marx will be an excellent advertisement and an "eye-catcher", Wolf said. He is convinced that the bronze Marx, which should be unveiled on May 5th, will attract an even greater number of tourists to Trier and to the Karl Marx museum there. The portrait is a gift from the Chinese comrades for the birthplace of the giant. Including the pedestal, he is 5.5 meters tall.

I simply needed to translate the full news story because it makes me say Wow, just wow. The related Czech story is titled "Juncker will open an exhibition on Karl Marx and unveil his statue. And what about millions of victims of communism?". It's being mentioned that Trier lies on the border with Luxembourg, the exhibition will be "huge", and it will enjoy the sponsors among the most powerful EU officials.

Pavel Šafr, the editor-in-chief of Forum24 and an ex-boss of mine, writes that the exhibition could surely highlight the contradictions in Marx's personality and terrifying consequences of his thought experiment. However, the citizens of the cute German petty-bourgeois town of Trier decided that they will also erect a huge bronze statue donated by the People's Republic of China. That's a country led by a party that has been maintaining one of the most monstrous Marxist regimes before it replaced it with a hard, Dickens capitalism without civic freedoms. That system was typical for the 19th century Europe and Marx was vigorously criticizing it.

It's not clear what Juncker will talk about but his presence will surely promote the exhibition into an extraordinary event. Marx is inspiring the "moderate Left" that is, among other things, criticizing the International Monetary Fund where Juncker has belonged to the leadership. Juncker's speech will kickstart three exhibitions in Trier. On 1,000 squared meters, his life will be promoted up to October, including the aggressive rant "The Communist Manifesto" and the utterly unreadable and confused, three-volume-long diatribe "The Capital".

It's likely that Juncker's speech will also mention that something wasn't quite right about communism, and I am still translating what Šafr wrote. However, one may imagine that Juncker will question the relationship between Marx's ideas and millions of victims of his crazy and fanatical ideology which not only admits but even promotes the violence as a tool to transform the human society and that pushes people into fatal and hateful conflicts.

West Germans, just like the members of many other Western nations, don't fully realize what kind of an outrageous absurdity such an event represents from the perspective of thousands of victims of the communist terror. And Mr Juncker, who has previously demonstrated his ability to lionize Fidel Castro, should realize that these are the signals by which he helps to discredit the image of the European Union and integration among a big portion of the people in the post-communist Europe. When it comes to the famous men born in Trier, it wasn't Karl Marx but the Emperor Constantine the Great who stood by the cradle of the European cultural and political integration.

Karl Heinrich Marx was born there in 1818. Too bad he didn't stay in Trier and didn't follow in the footsteps of his father who abandoned judaism to pursue the career of a lawyer.